Project Funded to Develop a New Beta-Blocker with No Lung-Function Side Effects

Researchers in the United Kingdom have been awarded a large grant to develop a new beta-blocker with fewer adverse side effects related to lung disorders and asthma.

Beta-blockers are drugs that reduce the symptoms connected with hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias, angina pectoris, migraine headaches, and other disorders related to the sympathetic nervous system. Beta-blockers also are sometimes given after heart attacks to stabilize the heartbeat. Within the sympathetic nervous system, beta-adrenergic receptors are located mainly in the heart, lungs, kidneys, and blood vessels. Beta-blockers compete with the nerve-stimulating hormone epinephrine for these receptor sites and thus interfere with the action of epinephrine, lowering blood pressure and heart rate, stopping arrhythmias, and preventing migraine headaches. However, as the currently available beta-blockers are poor at discriminating between receptors in the heart and lungs, they can cause the muscles in the lungs to tighten, which make breathing more difficult in some patients who have a pre-existing lung complaint.

Investigators from the University of Nottingham (Nottingham, UK) have already developed a molecule that is much more effective at discriminating between the heart and lungs than current drugs. To allow this team to continue working on the drug to eliminate its residual effect on lung function, the Wellcome Trust (London, UK) has awarded them a £2.8 million grant for the next three years.

Director of the project, Dr. Jill Baker, professor of biomedical sciences at the University of Nottingham, said, "Once developed, this molecule will cause much less wheezing and shortness of breath and should be able to be given safely to the hundreds of thousands of patients with both heart and lung diseases. Furthermore, because it will have so few side effects, it has the potential to become the beta-blocker of choice for all heart patients.”

Dr. Ted Bianco, director of technology transfer at the Wellcome Trust, said, "We know that beta-blockers save lives in patients with heart disease, so making them safe for those unlucky enough to have a respiratory disorder as well is a clinical imperative. I applaud Jill Baker for questioning why beta-blockers should remain contraindicated for so many of her patients, and being stirred to correct this with an incisive program of work. In the best traditions of medical research, this endeavor was born out of a problem encountered at the sharp end of clinical practice.”

Related Links:
University of Nottingham
Wellcome Trust